Help Can't recharge phone

[RhinoCan]

I have a Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017) bought new in 2017. A few weeks ago, I suddenly found myself unable to put the end of the charging cable into the charging port; the USB-C connector would not quite go onto the bit of circuit board in the charging port (sorry, I'm not sure of the vocabulary for that part of the phone.) I don't remember doing anything to physically damage the phone but the USB-C simply wouldn't seat properly after that no matter how firmly I pushed. (I did NOT want to break it entirely so I didn't force it.) I have two chargers and had the same issues with both chargers. I can't see any sign of anything wrong with the chargers: I'm nearly certain the problem is with the phone itself. I *think* the problem is that the bit of circuit board I need to attach to has moved slightly so that it is too far inside the phone to make proper contact.

Eventually, I determined that I could get a slow charge out of the phone by holding the connector in the connector port at a specific angle and pressure and this tided me over since then; I was even able to get the cable to stay connected while it charged overnight for the last few weeks.

Tonight though, I cannot get the cable to sit in the right place, even if I hold it myself and I simply can't sit up for the next several hours even if I want to. There is noisy construction that is happening very close by starting at the crack of dawn each morning and I'm already up too late now.

I don't know much about electronics but I'm wondering if this is even fixable. Perhaps if I could get the phone open, I could push the bit of circuit board I need to engage with back into its proper position and charge it normally. Or is that wishful thinking?

COVID has really messed with my finances and I have no money to spend for repairs, let alone another phone. I've been really happy with this phone and would love to figure out a solution to this problem. Any suggestions would be very gratefully received!!

 

[ocnbrze]

not really good with electronics myself so i have not done this, but i would have mentioned ifixit.xom.......but they only offer guides and parts for the screen and battery. you maybe sol.....maybe look into a burner phone until you can afford another phone.

and if you plan on searching for another phone via ebay looking for a deal......make sure you have a clean imei and that frp has not been tripped. meet the person selling the phone and boot the phone up while they are in your presence to make sure frp has not been tripped and that you can successfully sign the phone up with your account info before handing the person the money.

i do not think you can anything other then replace the charge port which as i stated earlier parts will be hard to find.

 

[RhinoCan]

I know what IMEI is but what is "frp"?

 

[Dannydet]

Factory reset protection

 

[sctraffic]

I have a Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017) bought new in 2017. A few weeks ago, I suddenly found myself unable to put the end of the charging cable into the charging port; the USB-C connector would not quite go onto the bit of circuit board in the charging port (sorry, I'm not sure of the vocabulary for that part of the phone.) I don't remember doing anything to physically damage the phone but the USB-C simply wouldn't seat properly after that no matter how firmly I pushed. (I did NOT want to break it entirely so I didn't force it.) I have two chargers and had the same issues with both chargers. I can't see any sign of anything wrong with the chargers: I'm nearly certain the problem is with the phone itself. I *think* the problem is that the bit of circuit board I need to attach to has moved slightly so that it is too far inside the phone to make proper contact.

Eventually, I determined that I could get a slow charge out of the phone by holding the connector in the connector port at a specific angle and pressure and this tided me over since then; I was even able to get the cable to stay connected while it charged overnight for the last few weeks.

Tonight though, I cannot get the cable to sit in the right place, even if I hold it myself and I simply can't sit up for the next several hours even if I want to. There is noisy construction that is happening very close by starting at the crack of dawn each morning and I'm already up too late now.

I don't know much about electronics but I'm wondering if this is even fixable. Perhaps if I could get the phone open, I could push the bit of circuit board I need to engage with back into its proper position and charge it normally. Or is that wishful thinking?

COVID has really messed with my finances and I have no money to spend for repairs, let alone another phone. I've been really happy with this phone and would love to figure out a solution to this problem. Any suggestions would be very gratefully received!!

Thanks for your valuable suggestion. Very informative post.

 

[KENJIFRIEDCIKEN]

buy new phone

 

[nickdalzell]

USB-C failures are common. Yet another solution to a problem which didn't exist. Sometimes, you get a screen indicating it's charging and maybe an hour left, only to wake up and see it showing '18%, use original charger, unknown time remaining'. That happened with a Galaxy A01, an A02s, a S20 FE 5G, and an S8 (first device I had with USB-C) thankfully the latter two had wireless charging support. So does my Z Flip in case it happens again.

Doesn't matter which cable you buy, (and assuming you don't get bad luck and the pins are different and short your phone out, sucks for my A03s!) or the phone or tablet you use. USB-C feels weak. It just slides in, never that satisfying 'click' you got with Micro USB. I have NEVER had a Micro USB cable or port fail. I try to take care of my stuff. But I've had far more USB-C issues than I'm willing to put up with. The most common one is where you plug the cable in, nothing happens. Take it out, plug it in a few more times, eventually it indicates it's charging. Then you have to watch it like a hawk to make sure the percentage actually climbs instead of it falling.

Does anyone remember when an 'upgrade' was better than what came before? These days, the 'upgrade' is far worse and more frustrating to use, and ends up being change for change's sake with zero customer demand for the change in the first place, and since everything is corporate run today, the customer is expected to just accept it.

I can't name one benefit of USB-C or 64-bit CPUs. All I know is no 64-bit PC can run Half Life 2 or Portal, and USB-C devices never charge right. Neither was a problem before.

 

[AppleUser]

I have a Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017) bought new in 2017. A few weeks ago, I suddenly found myself unable to put the end of the charging cable into the charging port; the USB-C connector would not quite go onto the bit of circuit board in the charging port (sorry, I'm not sure of the vocabulary for that part of the phone.) I don't remember doing anything to physically damage the phone but the USB-C simply wouldn't seat properly after that no matter how firmly I pushed. (I did NOT want to break it entirely so I didn't force it.) I have two chargers and had the same issues with both chargers. I can't see any sign of anything wrong with the chargers: I'm nearly certain the problem is with the phone itself. I *think* the problem is that the bit of circuit board I need to attach to has moved slightly so that it is too far inside the phone to make proper contact.

Eventually, I determined that I could get a slow charge out of the phone by holding the connector in the connector port at a specific angle and pressure and this tided me over since then; I was even able to get the cable to stay connected while it charged overnight for the last few weeks.

Tonight though, I cannot get the cable to sit in the right place, even if I hold it myself and I simply can't sit up for the next several hours even if I want to. There is noisy construction that is happening very close by starting at the crack of dawn each morning and I'm already up too late now.

I don't know much about electronics but I'm wondering if this is even fixable. Perhaps if I could get the phone open, I could push the bit of circuit board I need to engage with back into its proper position and charge it normally. Or is that wishful thinking?

COVID has really messed with my finances and I have no money to spend for repairs, let alone another phone. I've been really happy with this phone and would love to figure out a solution to this problem. Any suggestions would be very gratefully received!!

I've had three Samsung phones with charging issues, and each time cleaning the charging port with a toothpick solved the problem.

 

[ocnbrze]

USB-C failures are common. Yet another solution to a problem which didn't exist. Sometimes, you get a screen indicating it's charging and maybe an hour left, only to wake up and see it showing '18%, use original charger, unknown time remaining'. That happened with a Galaxy A01, an A02s, a S20 FE 5G, and an S8 (first device I had with USB-C) thankfully the latter two had wireless charging support. So does my Z Flip in case it happens again.

Doesn't matter which cable you buy, (and assuming you don't get bad luck and the pins are different and short your phone out, sucks for my A03s!) or the phone or tablet you use. USB-C feels weak. It just slides in, never that satisfying 'click' you got with Micro USB. I have NEVER had a Micro USB cable or port fail. I try to take care of my stuff. But I've had far more USB-C issues than I'm willing to put up with. The most common one is where you plug the cable in, nothing happens. Take it out, plug it in a few more times, eventually it indicates it's charging. Then you have to watch it like a hawk to make sure the percentage actually climbs instead of it falling.

Does anyone remember when an 'upgrade' was better than what came before? These days, the 'upgrade' is far worse and more frustrating to use, and ends up being change for change's sake with zero customer demand for the change in the first place, and since everything is corporate run today, the customer is expected to just accept it.

I can't name one benefit of USB-C or 64-bit CPUs. All I know is no 64-bit PC can run Half Life 2 or Portal, and USB-C devices never charge right. Neither was a problem before.

never had any issues with any of my usb-c connections. it is far more reliable than micro-usb cables that most phones had. now those i always had connection issues with.

 

[nickdalzell]

I dunno, I just seem to have better luck with the very devices and apps everyone else hates. I love Bixby (prefer it over Assistant as it can do far more), hate USB-C, had no issues with Micro USB at all, and thought the HTC Thunderbolt was the best Android ever made.

I really don't understand. Maybe I would have been perfectly happy with a Chevrolet Vega as well? Lord knows it couldn't have been any worse than my Subaru XT6.